THIE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Courtesy New Zealand Government
A MAORI BELLE IN NATIVE DRESS
Many of the younger girls are beautiful,
since they do not mar their looks by tattooing
their lips and chin, according to the ancient
fashion. They are especially proud of their
long, luxuriant hair. The Maori boys and girls
of to-day have lost interest in their native songs
and legends and enjoy modern dances and mo
tion pictures.
snap worthy of tried athletes, and great
is the rejoicing over the winners.
"TIE
CHASE FOR A MAORI BRIDE"
Then there is the Ha Kahaka Tama
hine, which, being interpreted, means
"The Chase for a Maori Bride."
The
selection of the young maiden, or wahine,
for this event is no easy task, for she
must be the most beautiful of all the girls
in the surrounding country, and beautiful
Maori girls are the rule, not the excep
tion.
The lucky maiden is put in the bow of
a small, very swift canoe and her brother
or some other relative takes his place in
the stern to paddle her through the chase
which ensues. As they appear on the
course before the crowds who throng the
beach, a tremendous cheer goes up, and it
is not difficult to see that this happy little
wahine is popular as well as lovely.
Hardly have the wahine and her rela
tive taken their places near the starting
post when the canoes of the chasers shoot
out to their respective stations. Each is
very fast and light and paddled by five or
six men, with a vacant place in their
midst for the bride, in case she is cap
tured before reaching the finish line.
At the signal, the bride's canoe dashes
away down the course, followed a minute
later by her pursuers. The object of the
chase, as is soon evident, is to overtake
the maiden, lift her from her own craft
into one of the places left vacant for her
in the canoes of the contestants, and carry
her over the course to the finish line.
The crew which makes the capture at
once becomes the object of pursuit for
the others, who in turn try to overtake
the bride.
The crew which finally succeeds in car
rying her across the finish line is pro
claimed the winner: but whether or not
the lady chooses her husband from the
winning boat is a delicate question, which
does not, I think, enter into the conditions
of the race itself. At any rate, the bride
is landed on the beach and has to run a
gauntlet of deafening applause from en
thusiastic thousands.
Our stay at Rotorua must, like all good
things, come to an end at last. Rising
very early one morning, we take a regret
ful leave of the mist-wrapped lake and
the steaming terraces and hillsides, whose
beauties and horrors alike have been a
source of such keen interest: we are
whirled off over the lava-roughened hills,
past Waimangu, past old Tarawera, and
so down through the fern-clad jungles to
Wairakei, Lake Taupo, and the Wanga
nui River, where new scenes of un
dreamed-of beauty await us in this im
perial wonderland.
130